Think Your Commute Is Bad Now? Sorry, It’s Only Supposed To Get Worse

The good news? As the economy gets better, people are heading off to new jobs. The bad news? The more people there are driving to work, the longer your commute is going to be. That was the case last year, when Americans spent an average of more than 20 additional hours in traffic.

That works out to losing two and a half work days sitting in your car, staring at the brake lights in front of and wondering how it came to this. That’s according a report from GPS company TomTom, reports CNNMoney, and is a two-hour increase from 2012.

Blame economic recovery, if you like, say the experts.

“That was one way to deal with congestion — have a recession,” says Rocky Moretti, director of policy and research at The Road Information Program, an organization that studies road traffic. But, he said, “as the economy comes back, so does congestion.”

L.A. drivers have it the worst, as if they don’t already know it, spending 40 extra minutes daily waiting out traffic jams on freeways. That works out to more than 11 work days every year. All those hours translate into money on costs like fuel, to the tune of an average of $832 in extra spending.

And the more people that hop in their cars to drive to new jobs, that gridlock is only going to get worse. But yay, economy!

Why your commute is getting worse [CNNMoney]

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